Surviving in a toad-colonised landscape: manipulating predator behaviour to reduce the impact of the cane toad invasion

入侵物种对生物多样性构成了重大威胁;在澳大利亚，甘蔗蟾蜍被广泛认为是最大的问题之一。 虽然采取了有力措施来控制蟾蜍，但并没有减缓蟾蜍的入侵速度，蟾蜍现在正进入金伯利地区。 如果我们不能阻止蟾蜍，有没有其他方法来减少因食用这些有毒入侵者而死亡的本地掠食者的数量？ 捕食者在第一次进食蟾蜍时就被给予了引起恶心的化学物质，很快就学会了避开甘蔗蟾蜍作为猎物，这使得它们即使在有蟾蜍的地方也能生存下来。 这项研究将为几个脆弱的本地物种开发这些方法，包括在蟾蜍入侵之前部署厌恶诱导诱饵的技术。

Invasive species pose a major threat to biodiversity; and within Australia, cane toads are widely viewed as one of the biggest such problems. Vigorous attempts at toad control have failed to slow the invasion front, and toads are now entering the Kimberley region. If we can’t stop the toads, are there other ways to reduce the numbers of native predators killed by eating these poisonous invaders? Predators given nausea-inducing chemicals with their first toad meal rapidly learn to avoid cane toads as prey, enabling them to survive even where toads are present. The study will develop those methods for several vulnerable native species, including techniques for deployment of aversion-inducing baits in advance of the toad invasion.